Caroline Giuliani makes deal in shoplifting case

August 31, 2010 2:32:19 PM PDT

Eyewitness News

NEW YORK --

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's 21-year-old daughter is on track to get her cosmetics-store shoplifting case dismissed with a day of community service after a judge agreed Tuesday to prosecutors' offer to resolve the case.

The case against Caroline Giuliani - accused of pocketing about $100 worth of makeup at a high-end shop - was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. The legal term means the case will be closed and sealed if Giuliani completes the volunteer work and doesn't have any more brushes with the law for six months.

"Stay out trouble and avoid rearrest," Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Schecter told Giuliani, a Harvard University student. She didn't speak in court and ignored reporters' questions as she, mother Donna Hanover and others waded through a media pack to a waiting Hyundai SUV. Her father wasn't there.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said the resolution of her case was standard policy for first-time, low-dollar-value shoplifting arrests - not a special deal for the daughter of the former federal prosecutor turned law-and-order mayor and Republican presidential candidate, who made cracking down on petty crime a centerpiece of his tenure at City Hall. He viewed being tough on low-level offenses as key to lowering crime rates and improving New Yorkers' quality of life.

A spokeswoman for him didn't immediately respond to an e-mail message. The ex-mayor has said through a representative that the case was a personal matter.

His daughter was seen on security video pocketing more than $100 worth of makeup Aug. 4 at a Sephora store in Manhattan, police said. She was arrested on a misdemeanor charge but released with a notice to return to court.

Representatives for Sephora, part of Paris-based luxury goods giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, had no immediate comment Tuesday on the case.

Caroline Giuliani is the younger of the former mayor's two children with Hanover, his ex-wife and a television reporter and actress. They had a bruisingly public split while he was in office - Hanover famously found out he wanted a divorce when he announced it at a press conference. The ex-mayor has since remarried and asked for privacy to deal with his family relationships.

In 2007, when Rudy Giuliani was seeking the Republican nomination for president, Caroline Giuliani listed herself as a member of Barack Obama's Facebook group supporting his candidacy. But she left the group after an online magazine sent her an inquiry about it, and she didn't comment on the presidential race.

Rudy Giuliani lost the GOP nod to U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was defeated by Obama.

It wasn't immediately clear where or when Caroline Giuliani would perform her community service. She's due back in court Nov. 4 to show proof that she has done her volunteer work.